Youth Valentine Banquets are still very popular with young people.

Valentine Banquet

Why Have a Valentine Banquet?

A Valentine Banquet is usually a dress up affair that allows the guys to wear a suit and the girls to wear a party or special Sunday dress.  It should be promoted as a “Valentine Banquet” and not a “Sweet Heart Banquet”

A Valentine Banquet also gives the Youth Leader a chance to fellowship with the youth in a very enjoyable and relaxed atmosphere. 

A Valentine Banquet gives the youth leadership a chance to involve themselves with young people that are not usually in their group.

 

A Valentine Banquet, if planned properly, provides a chance for young people to meet and mix with other young people that they usually do not associate with.

 

A Valentine Banquet offers the opportunity for your youth to invite guest.  Invited guest who really have a good time will want to come to other social events that you provide and may eventually become a part of your youth group.

 

Pull out all of the stops.  Go for Broke.  Make it the best event of the year.  Make it fun and exciting.

 

A Valentine Banquet should be fun with exciting activities and entertainment that is fun and interesting.  This is not the time for serious speakers or Bible Teachers or Preaching a sermon.  Make it fun and not an everyday affair. 

Spiritual emphasis is always a part of every activity, but, do not make the main attraction a guest speaker or preacher that is only going to preach a sermon.  Many very good youth speakers have a light side to their program that is entertaining and ends with a good Bible centered devotional or message.

 

A Valentine Banquet Room should be extravagantly decorated with a crepe streamer ceiling and fancy colorful table cloths. 

Special and colorful invitations should be sent a few weeks in advance. 

Name tags are good if they reflect the theme and are special. 

The printed program should be designed to portray the theme and should be professionally designed and printed.

 

Have servers serve the tables.  Do not use cafeteria style or buffet style serving.  Servers should be dressed to fit the theme.  Make this special for the youth and the servers.

 

Plan a decorated place for pictures.  Decorate the picture area and background to fit the theme and make sure that the decorations are special and elaborate. 

Individual and Couples (if date is present) pictures should be taken and prints made available at no charge if possible.  Try to have someone who is skilled at printing photos present and have them print the pictures while the banquet is in progress and let the youth pick up their pictures at the end of the night.

 

Plan the menu so that it will be special.  Stay away from the regular supper menus that the youth are used to having at the church.   Be creative in this area.  Be sure to make the plates look pretty and have special desserts that youth really like. 

 

How to plan your Valentine Banquet

Enlist a Banquet Coordinator and Committee Chairpersons for the committees that will be needed to make the banquet a success.  Be sure to have at least 6 to 8 youth on the committee.  Do not assign the youth duties on the evening of the banquet.  The Committee Structure should include:

• Promotion Committee

• Decorations Committee – Room Decorations and Table Decorations

• Theme and Program Committee – this will include the dress, decorations, promotion and entertainment.

• Greeters Committee - Welcome people as they arrive with an activity that everyone can enjoy while the others arrive

• Menu and food preparation Committee

• Servers Committee – Enlist adults to serve the meal

• Set up and clean up Committee

• Photography Committee 

Promotion Committee – chairperson and four to six members (two young people).  

• Use mail outs, bulletin boards, and short skits at youth assemblies to promote the banquet. 
• Make invitations that are very decorative and use the theme to design the invitation.  Send the invitations to all youth who are involved in any area of the Church Program.  Send to prospect list and all former visitors if you have that information
• Design a bulletin board with the theme and specific information about the banquet  and place it in an area that the youth will pass often during their time at church.  Make large posters and put on easels and place them in areas that will be seen by the youth.
• Write a skit to promote the Valentine Banquet and have the youth to put on the skit in all youth assemblies and possibly in the announcement section of the morning worship service.
• Organize a telephone blitz to call all youth in the church.  Also, use email and text messaging to promote the Youth Valentine Banquet. 

Decorations Committee – Chairman and six to eight members (two young people)

• The decorations committee will be responsible for decorating the room, tables, photo area and entrance to the room.
• Make the decorations as elaborate as possible.
• Consider a crepe paper streamer covered ceiling.  Install wires in ceiling so you can drape the ceiling and have different designs.  Let the ceiling drape come down the side walls to the floor, giving the room a red and white haze.
• Decorate the tables using “favorites” that go along the theme and use specialty table cloths.
• Plan a photo area and decorate with crepe paper and streamers covering the area.  You can use greenery, gazebo furniture, ocean ship décor and many other themes.  Let your imagination go wild.  Make it unusual but beautiful.  Have the photographer in on your plans.
• Decorate the entrance so that it resembles a tunnel covered with crepe paper streamers or a jungle trail with elaborate greenery on each side with a fountain made of paper Mache rocks and colored flood lights.
• Depending on the theme, there are many ideas that your committee can come up with to make the entrance very attractive and unique.   Remember, the entrance is the first impression that your youth will have of the banquet and will set the atmosphere for the rest of the banquet.
• “Small Favors” at the table would be nice if you can come up with something that would compliment your theme.  Have them as part of the table setting.

Make the decorations as elaborate as possible.

 

Theme and Program Committee – Chairperson and four to six members (two young people). 

 
This committee will come up with a theme for the banquet and will plan and supervise the program.  The theme should be one that will relate to the youth, be unique and exciting and provide the atmosphere for semi-formal dress.  There are many exciting possibilities for invitation and promotion design.  The decorating committee has many possibilities for their design of the decorations of the room, entrance and photo area.

The program should include music – atmosphere music throughout the banquet, group singing and entertaining music by a musical group.  The music should complement the theme and should not contain and type of rock and roll or other music that would not be suitable for church use.  The banquet room should not sound like a dance hall.  

Fun Drama could be used by performing short and funny skits.  There are many funny skits available if proper research is done.  Check the “Youth and Recreation Library” for ideas on banquets and funny short dramas.

If you use a speaker, be sure he or she uses entertaining funny material that ends with a devotional thought.  It is best not to have the program built around a sermon.  There are many different approaches available to the committee.

Do your research and make this program unique and different from the programs that are usually provided at youth banquets.  It should be light and entertaining. 

Puppet programs, youth groups, comedy plays, speakers with a hilarious and funny presentation,  a speaker with a model dummy puppet, a kazoo band made up of several youth or even a senior adult kazoo band dressed hillbilly style can make up a very interesting and entertaining program. 

 Do your research and do a lot of brainstorming with your committee and their friends to come up with some really cool ideas.  Make it most unusual and entertaining. 

 

Design a printed program to be placed on the table as part of the table decorations.  Design the printed program to fit the theme and have it commercially printed if possible.  If not, use your imagination and make it very attractive and entertaining.

 

You are limited only by your imagination and willingness to search out program possibilities. 

 

Greeters Committee - four to six members (two young people).

 

The greeters committee should be at the entrance to the banquet room greeting each young person as they arrive.  An “Ice Breaker” should be planned.   What is an “Ice Breaker”?  An “Ice Breaker” is exactly what it sounds like.  The young people who first arrive will feel somewhat self-conscious if there are not any of their friends in the room immediately as they arrive, so, there needs to be something for them to do. 

 

Adult and Youth members of the committee should be around the entrance to greet and mix with the youth as they arrive.   A table with light finger foods and punch can be set up close to the entrance for the youth to mill around and sample the delights.  

 

Make sure that you do not allow anyone to become a “wall flower” and just sit down somewhere by themselves.  “Break the Ice atmosphere” by offering a warm and friendly reception, especially the visitors.  Make everyone feel very welcome.  If you can come up with little favors, this would be a good time to give them out.

 

Now you need a “mixer”.  What is a mixer?   A mixer is an activity that mixes everyone up.  A mixer should force everyone to speak to others without their realizing what you are having them do.  There are many mixers available in recreation books and on the web.  The “Youth and Recreation Library” features several possibilities. 

 

One type of mixer is to print several questions on a 4x6 index card that the youth have to ask several people to find the answers.  Print the instructions on the top of the card and make them very simple and easy to follow. 

 

Give the card and a pencil to everyone as they enter.  Let them know that a prize will be given to the persons who get the most answers.  What are some of the questions that could be used? 

• “Who has a middle name that begins with the letter “B”:
• "Who was born in “April”:
• “Whose mother or father was born in “Texas”:
• “Who has had   _____________ as their English teacher”:
• "Who has been to “Alaska”:
• “Whose parents met in elementary, junior high or high school”:
• “Who has been to Washington D.C.”:
• “Who has a puddle as a pet”:
• “who has a Mainecoon Cat for a pet”:
• or any question that your committee can come up with. 

There should be around a dozen questions so that it will take some time for the youth to get the answers.  Try to get a few questions that only one or two people could answer. 

 

At the banquet, plan with the program committee to call out the questions and see how many people has the answer.  Ask for a few to give their answer.  Have the person whose names are called out to raise their hand.  Give a nice prize to the winners.  You could have several winners. 

Remember the idea of a mixer is to get every young person at the banquet talking to several other young people.  Mix them up!!!!

 

Menu and Food Preparation Committee - four to six members (two young people). 

 

The menu should be different and enjoyable with a terrific dessert. What you serve depends on your cooking facility and budget.  Some banquets are catered but catering is very expensive.  Some banquets have the church kitchen personnel cook the meal.  Some banquets have adults who are good at barbecueing cook chicken, steaks, or barbeque pork on a large grill and other adults prepare the vegetables, salads and desserts. 

 

Regardless of the manner in which the meal is prepared make sure it is different, special and something young people enjoy.  Do not let it be something that they get every time they have a youth activity.  Make it colorful and have a very good taste.  The young people should go away excited about the fun they had at the Valentine Banquet.

 

One idea is to name each course some unique and funny name and list the menu on the program.  Work with the program committee on designing the program to include the menu.

 

Servers Committee – four to six adult members

 

The server committee plans the serving procedure, recruits the servers and supervises the serving of the food.  Always serve the food at the table and do not use a buffet line. 

 

The servers should be dressed to fit the theme of the banquet.  Train the servers to pay close attention to the tables that they are assigned and the proper procedure for serving. 

 

Study the food preparation and banquet room and make the serving as simple as possible.  Make sure you have enough serving carts, containers for serving the drinks and people to make up the plates so there will be no bottle neck when trying to serve. 

 

This takes very detailed planning so be sure you do it well and the serving will go smoothly.

 

Set up and Clean up Committee – four to six adults

 

The Set Up and Clean Up Committee must plan for setting up and cleaning up the banquet room with tables, chairs and stage area.  They should enlist enough people so that this will not be a burdensome job for one or two people.  DO NOT USE YOUNG PEOPLE FOR THIS TASK.  THE BANQUET NIGHT IS THEIR NIGHT.      

 

Find out if the chairs and tables in the banquet room have to be completely removed.  What to do about moping and vacuuming of the banquet room, serving area and kitchen.  Know where to put the trash and how to wash the dishes.  You may want to consider hiring kitchen personnel to wash up the cooking utensil and dishes.  Regardless of how you do this make sure it is done properly.

 

This is really not an exciting job but it must be done.  Make sure you recruit enough people for this job so that the burden will not fall on a few who have to work so hard that they will not want to help in the future.

 

Photography Committee – four to six adults (two young people

 

If pictures are to be taken (I strongly suggest that this be done), someone has to recruit the photographer, see that the area is properly decorated and lighted, make arrangement for the pictures to be printed while the youth are in the banquet, greet the youth as they arrive and escort them to the picture taking area – you want all youth to have their picture taken, organize the printed pictures for distribution and then give the pictures to the youth as they leave.

 

This can be a very exciting activity if it is properly planned and promoted.   Be sure to plan in detail how you will accomplish each and every aspect of the photo taking process.  It can be a fiasco or it can be a rewarding experience.  It all depends on proper planning. 

 

REMEMBER THE FIVE “P’s” – Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance!

 

The Valentine can be one of your top hits for the year if you really go all out and research the many possibilities that are available for you to use in your planning process. 

 

Let us know how it goes and send us several pictures of your decorations, photography area, a copy of your printed program and youth participating in the different activities.

 

Good Luck on Your Banquet! 

A Guide To Youth and  Recreation  

An eighty page booklet about Youth and Recreation Activities in the church  that gives direction and information on: Planning to Build a Recreation Facility ,  An Introduction to Church Recreation,  Social Recreation,  Sports and Games, Drama in the Church,   Camping, Backpacking, Day Camps, Retreats, Music in Recreation,  Arts & Crafts, Exercise, and Senor Adult Ministry.  This is an excellent resource for planning parties, banquets, fellowships, puppet ministry, drama, camping, day camping, trips, senior adult activities, therapeutic recreation and much more.

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